The present invention relates generally to motion capture, and more particularly to methods and systems for group tracking of motion capture marker data.
A typical motion capture system includes multiple fixed cameras surrounding a volume of space. The cameras record the movement of markers attached to a target, such as a person. Based on the recorded movement, a model of the target's motion can be derived and then used for generating a graphical representation of that movement, such as in a movie or video game.
In one implementation of a motion capture system, the markers on the captured images are labeled to facilitate identifying what the marker represents. A large number of images may be captured for a particular scene, from which is derived a sequence of frames of volumetric data. Each marker in the scene is tracked individually through the sequence of frames in order to generate a graphical representation of its movement. The tracking task is complex when, for example, the trajectories of several markers attached to an actor must be tracked through a large number of frames (volumes). The task becomes significantly more complex when multiple actors and/or objects equipped with a plurality of markers interact in the scene.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method that overcomes these significant problems found in tracking multiple motion capture markers using conventional methods as described above.